Gig-a-Blog™ (Eidolon Trio, St Anne & St Agnes)

Friday, 21 September 2007

Eidolon Trio. Walter Fabeck, piano; Khac-Uyen Nguyen, violin; Kim Mackrell, cello. Haydn: Trio in C, Hoboken XV:21. Shostakovich: Trio

It was rather fun coming to today's lunchtime concert. An account of why this was so has been privatized, spun off and outsourced following a management buy-out and, in order to maximize shareholder gain and cut back on customer service, will now be found nearby on a lavishly-subsidized brownfield site.

Meanwhile, back at the gig, let us see whether anything even faintly coherent can be reconstructed, after the passage of much time, from my incoherent, staccato notes:

Seemed like it may have been a slightly bigger audience than usual? Maybe Eidolon has ruthless marketing executives, a MySpace site, a huge fan club? Interesting. Or maybe I was just hallucinating, or it’s just the audience building from the season’s start. Or something.

Haydn:

1. Spirited, lively
2. Really beautiful - almost makes me wish I played a stringed instrument (ahahaha!!!)
3. Driven, energetic, fantastic: flying fingers.

Shostakovich:

• The idea of “Jewish lament” is mentioned somewhere, perhaps in the programme notes or in the ensemble’s introductory chat. Ah yes, see the Wikipedia article mentioned below.
• Nothing else sounds like Shostakovich. I had never before heard this fantastic work. It's a monster. I have to get a CD. Judging by the always–reliable (ahem) Wikipedia it’s probably Piano Trio No. 2. Or not.

1. Incredible high cello harmonics go on for ages. An incredible section. Typical accelerando then surprising jollity.
2. Jolly but always goes off outside that – is there ever any real happiness in Shostakovich? Discuss.
3. Very slow, massive lament , big violin solo. Quite still, empty, desolate almost - no passion.
4. Maddish dance. Sounds Russian. ("Sounds Russian"??? Did I really write that? Good grief.) Almost macabre. Angular. Maybe angry? Plenty of passion, certainly. Huge climax then big tune on strings with piano arpeggios behind. Impressive. Odd quiet bits of piano plus col legno strings – unsettling.

My notes give out at this point, so let us assume I enjoyed the rest of the last movement and got safely back to the office … maybe I was too carried away to write anything more. Who knows? It is one H*ll of a piece and it got an incredible performance from this great trio.